Posted on 01/31/2008 5:47:19 PM PST by BillyBonebrake
It may be a purely symbolic gesture, but the upcoming Town Meeting vote on whether Brattleboro should indict President Bush and Vice President Cheney certainly raised the ire of conservatives all over the country. The Municipal Center was swamped this week with nasty phone calls and e-mails, many containing language unprintable in this newspaper.
The level of rage from those who still believe that President Bush can do no wrong is astounding to behold. But while we're surprised there are still that many people in America who support Bush, we understand their rage.
Put yourself in the shoes of a diehard Bush supporter. You believed President Bush would avenge the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but Osama bin Laden has never been captured and Afghanistan remains a safe haven for al-Qaida.
You believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq posed a grave threat to America, but the WMDs turned out to have never existed and all the rationales for war turned out to be lies (see www. publicintegrity.org/WarCard for a fully searchable database of hundreds of false statements issued by the Bush administration in the two years after 9/11).
You believed him when President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, below a banner that read "Mission Accomplished," and proclaimed that major combat operations in Iraq were over. Now, nearly 4,000 Americans and about 1 million Iraqis have died in a conflict that was only supposed to last a few weeks and now is about to enter its sixth year.
You believed that President Bush would create a leaner, more efficient government, yet the size of the federal government has expanded and the federal budget surplus he inherited in 2001 is now a $9 trillion deficit.
You believed America would remain the unquestioned No. 1 superpower in the world. Now we're the No. 1 debtor nation, the dollar is weaker than it has been in decades and our influence on world affairs shrinks by the day.
In the face of all this, some little pipsqueak town in Vermont dares to call your president a war criminal and calls for his indictment and arrest.
We feel your pain. The man you believed was destined for greatness is now headed for the dustbin of history. Future historians will rate George W. Bush as the worst president ever. And the last remnants of the conservative majority you thought would last for decades will likely be swept away in November's election.
We fully realize that there is absolutely no chance that Brattleboro will indict and arrest Bush and Cheney. But three years ago, impeachment seemed like a crazy idea, too.
Conservatives laughed at Vermont in 2005 when Town Meeting voters around the state approved resolutions calling for Bush's impeachment. Now, the intransigence of the Democratic Party leadership in Congress is all that's preventing impeachment from taking place.
Nobody likes to be on the wrong side of history. That's why we have a certain amount of sympathy for the people who are attacking this town from the safety of their computer keyboards. Everything they believed in has been betrayed by an administration that exploited their trust.
Watching these people reminds us of the late psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' famous "Five Stages of Grief." They haven't really dealt with the first stage, denial and isolation ("Is Bush really that bad? It can't be.") Judging from the e-mails we've seen, they're very deep into the second stage, anger. They're entering the third stage, bargaining ("Maybe if we can find a real conservative like Ronald Reagan, everything will be better.") Stage four, depression, may be starting to sink in as they see that their presidential choices for 2008 are John McCain or Mitt Romney.
We're not sure if they will get to the final stage, acceptance ("Maybe John McCain isn't really that bad, after all.") We hope they do, eventually. If we as a nation are to eventually recover from the long nightmare that has been the Bush presidency, we'll need the support of those angry letter writers.
“But while we’re surprised there are still that many people in America who support Bush, we understand their rage.”
No you don’t. But you will.
Pass the pipe.
Now THAT's funny!
I post on another board that's probably 2/3 to 3/4ths liberal (not DU) and the known libs over there RIPPED Battleboro for this as well as another poster who suggested that their city hall do the same.
But somehow, it's all Bush's fault to the people of Battleboro.
Is carpetbombing out of the question?
Hey DS’s, no one said GWB hasn’t made any mistakes.... BUT he sure as hell has NOT done anything that is impeachable.
I started counting strawmen, but it got to be too much.
Debt, deficit, all those words mean the same, don't they?
I couldn’t believe what I was reading when I read this stupidity. It’s so unbelievable what’s happening in Brattlboro. Eventhough it’s a progressive (Liberal) little town with plenty of moonbattery, there is still a somewhat sensible segment which laughs at this crap. However, it seems the patients from the retreat have taken over and are running the town now!
I’m so sick of the WMD crap. If Saddam’s papers have information to the contrary then why are they released to the public?
They waited till winter to do this. Most of the smart folks in Vermont are down in florida till spring thaw.
These treasonous bass turds appear to be attempting a banana republic style coup. We might want to send in a company or two of National Guard troops to get this crazy little hamlet under control. They might also want to send in a Hazmat team to check the local water supply. These buffoons are definitely drinking or smoking something.
The only “News Paper†sorry propaganda organ in town. It lies to the town folk continuously and, in this opinion piece, it lies to itself. They are self righteous marxists and cannot comprehend that vast majority of our people people love America, not presidents. The outrage felt here on FR is about their utter contempt for our nation, its constitution, its traditions, and its economic system. Further, liberals (neo-communists) intend to steal whatever they desire from working citizens and give it to their supporters so as to build their socialist utopia. They will use government as their agents. Law enforcement as their muscle. They will put those of us that dare object in reeducation camps or jails while destroying and scattering our family’s in the process. Bad to be you Reformer all your beliefs are being abandoned by every communist regime except the terminally stupid ones, like N. Korea and Cuba. Your time in the world is coming to an end. I will not consent to be enslaved by you or your political minions. FReepers, I believe we can no longer flee from places like Brattleboro because the refuges people go to for freedom, are being infiltrated by these tyrants every day. Look at what has happened to New Hampshire over the last decade. We are running out of strongholds to go to.
We do laugh but we are outnumbered about two to one at the polls so correcting the situation is a bit more difficult.
Get those three looney asses off the select board and half the problems would be solved. Actually there's only one real culprit on that communist fantasy board, and you know who I'm referring too.
This piece gives an excellent glimpse into the fevered, confused and ugly ‘thought’ process of the typical ‘progressive’. Yet there is nothing ‘progressive’ about left-wing hatred and venom-spitting. There is nothing ‘progressive’ about the unreasoning Soviet-style groupthink exemplified by this article. And there is absolutely nothing ‘progressive’ about the damage that this idiot and his comrades will do to this country if we see another Clinton or an Obama in the White House. Be afraid - be very afraid...
Okay, these aren't Brattleboro pix, but just a few miles east in Peterborough, NH at a McCain rally last month. Same crowd though. How come the Unitarians are all so anti-Bush?
I think I bought a dime bag once from the guy with the penny whistle.
I'm not a McCain supporter by any means...
but I'd caucus with her in a heartbeat.
The Gravel people are certifiably crazy...
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Meanwhile, the candidate trys to cop a feel...
IMHO The best way to get started combating this would be to start an opposition news paper. One that is honest and conservative. As all media are owned and operated by libs few opposition messages can get out.
My wife indicates to me that the marxists want to build low income housing and import poor folk from Connecticut to place in them. Voila, a ready made liberal constituency in numbers to keep them in power for years and years. All paid for by tax payer money.
There is such voter apathy possibly because there is little difference between candidates. Well, next year I plan to give voters a choice. Probably only get one, vote two if my wife...oh, she says she will vote for me. Two then. But ya never know I just might win. :D)
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